The invention relates to paper towel dispensers and, more particularly, to dispensers for multi-fold paper towels.
Dispensers for multi-fold paper towels typically include a housing or cabinet for storing a generally vertical stack of the paper towels and a slot-like opening in the bottom of the cabinet through which a user can pull the bottommost towel from the stack. The pressure applied to different parts of the bottommost towel tends to be uneven and a user can tear off only a portion of the towel flap, instead of the entire towel, particularly when his or her hands and thumbs are wet. In many cases, a relatively large portion of a fold is accessible to a user and he or she can grab the fold at any location along substantially the entire length. Consequently, the amount of force required to pull the bottommost towel from the stack varies significantly depending on the particular location the user grabs the fold and the direction he or she pulls on the fold. Also, there is a tendency for more than one towel to be pulled from the stack when the stack becomes quite small. These problems are particularly prevalent when more absorbent towels are being dispensed.